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Basic Clouds

🛩️Cloud type is determined by its height, shape, & characteristics. They are classified according to the height of their bases as low, middle, or high clouds, as well as clouds with vertical development.

🛩️Low clouds are those that form near the Earth’s surface and extend up to about 6,500 feet AGL. They are made of water droplets but can include supercooled water droplets that induce hazardous aircraft icing. Typical low clouds are stratus, stratocumulus, nimbostratus. Fog is also low cloud formation. This Clouds create low ceilings, hamper visibility, & can change rapidly. They influence flight planning & can make visual flight rules (VFR) flight impossible.

🛩️Middle clouds form around 6,500 feet AGL & extend up to 20,000 feet AGL. They are composed of water, ice crystals, & supercooled water droplets. Typical middle-level clouds include altostratus & altocumulus. These types of clouds are encountered on cross-country flights at higher altitudes. Altostratus clouds can produce turbulence & may contain moderate icing. Altocumulus clouds, which usually form when altostratus clouds are breaking apart, contain light turbulence & icing.

🛩️High clouds form above 20,000 feet AGL & usually form only in stable air. They are made up of ice crystals & pose no real threat of turbulence or aircraft icing. Typical high level clouds are cirrus, cirrostratus, cirrocumulus.

🛩️Clouds with extensive vertical development are cumulus clouds that build vertically into towering cumulus or cumulonimbus clouds. The bases of these clouds form in the low to middle cloud base region but can extend into high altitude cloud levels. Towering cumulus clouds indicate areas of instability in the atmosphere, & the air around and inside them is turbulent. These types of clouds often develop into cumulonimbus clouds or thunderstorms. Cumulonimbus clouds contain large amounts of moisture & unstable air and usually produce hazardous weather phenomena, such as lightning, hail, tornadoes, gusty winds, wind shear.

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